Statement of significance:

Mount Allen is probably the oldest extant building in Wentworth Falls. It has a varied use including a popular hotel, a boarding house, brothel, school and private residence. Mount Allen is a representative Victorian Georgian building in the Blue Mountains. The original plantings to the house and the adjacent site at 121 Falls Road are important to the setting of the house and the streetscape.
The early laneway leading across the east side of the house is a rare extant unpaved backlane with informal plantings along the edges given it aesthetic appeal.

Date significance updated: 12 Jan 00

Note: The State Heritage Inventory provides information about heritage items listed by local and State government agencies. The State Heritage Inventory is continually being updated by local and State agencies as new information becomes available. Read the OEH copyright and disclaimer.

Description

Construction years:

1882-1882

Physical description:

A gabled single storey house on a north-south axis with a verandah on the east side facing Falls Road and an intersecting gabled wing on an east-west axis on the west side. The west wing has a verandah, broken back to the main roof on the north, south and west sides.
The roof is corrugated steel, chimneys are corbelled brickwork with terracotta pots.
The cladding is rusticated weatherboards to the east wall, splayed weatherboards elsewhere.
The front door on the centre of the east elevation has a 2 pane toplight. Openings for french doors with 2 pane toplights are on either side of the front door. One pair of french doors survive on the south side of the front door.
The house has 9 over 9 pane double hung windows.
A cellar is reached from the north side by rendered brick steps.
An entry door on the southwest corner of the main gabled wing has a sign over painted with
"Peter Mulheran
Licensed Retailer Fermented and Spiritious Liquor"
A bushrock chimney survives in the south yard, possibly from an earlier building on the site.
An unsealed lane from Fletcher Street to Backhouse Lane runs across the east side of the house.
A border of populus is on the east boundary, at the north end. This appears to have continued on the north boundary of the adjacent site at 121 Falls Road.
Plantings associated with Mount Allen surviving on 121 Falls Road inlcude -Populus and pinus radiata on north boundary
Quercus on north side of driveway gate and in southeast corner of yard.

Physical condition and/orArchaeological potential:

Good

Date condition updated:12 Jan 00

Modifications and dates:

Ends of east verandah enclosed with weatherboards
Front door replaced c.1950s
French doors on north side of front door replaced with large multipane windows c.1990s
Deck on north side of house
Terrace with stone walls on north side
North verandah of west wing infilled
Fibro skillion on north side.
Paling fence on east boundary of 1990s subdivision

Current use:

Residence

Former use:

Residence; School; Hotel; Boarding house

History

Historical notes:

Section 17 of the original township of Brasfort was sub-divided in the 1880s. Two
back-to-back lots were acquired by Peter Bishop around 1882, extending from Langford Street through to Falls road. A house was built on the Falls Road allotment (lot 8), close to the central lane which divided the two lots.

The first occupant was Peter Mulheran, the Irishman credited for the early walking tracks in the district. Mulheran opened Mount Allen as a licensed boarding house in 1887. It continued as a guesthouse until the 1950s with a period as a brothel and a children’s home

Historic themes

Australian theme (abbrev)

New South Wales theme

Local theme

4. Settlement-Building settlements, towns and cities

Accommodation-Activities associated with the provision of accommodation, and particular types of accommodation – does not include architectural styles – use the theme of Creative Endeavour for such activities.

(none)-

4. Settlement-Building settlements, towns and cities

Land tenure-Activities and processes for identifying forms of ownership and occupancy of land and water, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal

(none)-

6. Educating-Educating

Education-Activities associated with teaching and learning by children and adults, formally and informally.

(none)-

8. Culture-Developing cultural institutions and ways of life

Leisure-Activities associated with recreation and relaxation

(none)-

Assessment of significance

SHR Criteria a)[Historical significance]

Mount Allen is probably the oldest extant building in Wentworth Falls. It has a varied use including a popular hotel, a boarding house, brothel, school and private residence.

SHR Criteria c)[Aesthetic significance]

Mount Allen is a representative Victorian Georgian building in the Blue Mountains. The original plantings to the house and the adjacent site at 121 Falls Road are important to the setting of the house and the streetscape.
The early laneway leading across the east side of the house is a rare extant unpaved backlane with informal plantings along the edges given it aesthetic appeal.